NRSC Hands Out ‘I Shut Down the Government’ T-Shirts to Schumer, Top Democrats

The campaign arm of Senate Republicans on Tuesday capitalized on the government shutdown ending the prior night by handing out t-shirts that read "I shut down the government" to Senate Democrats.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which helps the GOP win Senate seats across the country, went to several Senate Democrats' offices on Capitol Hill and handed out the shirts, which read, "I shut down the government and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."

"Senate Democrats wasted the entire country's time with the pointless Schumer Shutdown, jeopardizing national security and delaying an extension of health insurance for 8.9 million children, while gaining absolutely nothing in return, other than a headache and bad press," the NRSC said in a press release, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.).

"The NRSC will be giving a Schumer Shutdown t-shirt, manufactured right here in the U.S.A. as our economy continues to boom under GOP leadership, to each member of the Senate Democratic Caucus so that they won't forget what happens when they shut down the federal government for no reason and with no endgame in mind," the press release continued.

On Friday, all but five Senate Democrats voted against a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government through Feb. 16, which would have avoided a government shutdown. The shutdown began at midnight on Friday after lawmakers could not pass a spending bill.

Many Democrats had said they would not vote for any government-funding legislation that did not address the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which provides legal protections to immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Three days later, Schumer announced on Monday that he reached a deal with Senate Republican leadership to reopen the government. Both the Senate and the House then easily passed legislation to fund the government for three weeks, but only after Democrats received GOP assurances that Congress would find a solution to the DACA issue in the coming weeks.

President Donald Trump on Monday night signed the stopgap bill, officially ending the three-day-long government shutdown.

Cameron CawthorneEmail Cameron | Full Bio | RSSCameron Cawthorne is a Media Analyst for the Washington Free Beacon. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 2013. Prior to joining Free Beacon, Cameron was a Legislative Assistant in the Virginia General Assembly and a War Room Analyst at America Rising.